February 14, 2013

MARTINSBURG - The jury in the trial of a Bunker Hill couple accused of abusing five children under their care more than three years ago reached a split verdict Wednesday following an 11-day trial in Berkeley County Circuit Court.

The jury of nine men and three women returned with a verdict shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday after deliberating for more than five hours over the course of two days.

"We are satisfied with the verdict in this regard. It was a long and hard-fought case. It shows us that child abuse happens in silence in many respects. I admire these children for how far they've come in this respect, and I thought that the verdict, based on all the evidence that the jury heard, was a fair verdict," Berkeley County Prosecutor Pamela Games-Neely said.

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Nathan A. Snyder

Christina A. Snyder

Jurors found Nathan A. Snyder, 29, of Nereid Lane, guilty of four counts of felony child abuse causing bodily injury and not guilty on eight remaining counts of an indictment charging him with child abuse causing bodily injury. He was originally indicted in February 2010 on 13 counts of child abuse causing injury, but one of the counts was dismissed at the close of the state's case.

Snyder's attorney, Thomas Stanley, said his client will likely appeal.

"I can't believe the jury found him guilty of anything based on the evidence I heard. I am just totally shocked by the verdict, and I'm sure there will be an appeal," Stanley said Wednesday.

A co-defendant in the case, Christina A. Snyder, 43, also of Nereid Lane, was found not guilty on one count of felony child abuse causing bodily injury and guilty on a lesser included offense of misdemeanor domestic battery on the remaining count of child abuse she was being tried on. She was originally indicted on five counts of child abuse causing bodily injury, but three of the counts were dismissed last week - two by the state and one by West Virginia 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge John Yoder. She is scheduled to be sentenced April 11 by Yoder. She had originally faced a maximum of sentence of 5 to 25 years prison based on the five counts she was initially indicted on. She now faces a maximum of 12 months in jail and a $500 fine for the domestic battery conviction.

"I just want to thank the jury for their hard work, and we are disappointed, obviously, with the misdemeanor conviction, but we're extremely happy that she was acquitted of all the felony counts," her attorney, Christopher Prezioso, said.

Games-Neely immediately filed a recidivist information against Nathan Snyder following his convictions, alleging he has two prior felony convictions. Under West Virginia's three strikes rule, he now could see his sentence enhanced to life in prison. No sentencing date has been scheduled in his case. That will take place after a separate recidivist trial that has been scheduled for April 23. Games-Neely said the two qualifying felony convictions stemmed from two prior convictions for driving under the influence third offense. She said Nathan Snyder was previously convicted of DUI third offense on Jan. 26, 2006, and June 9, 2003. If found by a jury to be a recidivist, Snyder will be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after serving a minimum of 15 years in prison. He also faces one to five years in prison on each of the remaining three counts of child abuse he was convicted of.

The alleged victims in the child abuse case included a 5-year-old girl, an 8-year-old girl, a 12-year-old boy and two 14-year-old boys. Games-Neely previously described the abuse as "hell on earth."

The defendants were arrested in 2009 after the children came forward with allegations that they were regularly beaten by the defendants with items including a riding crop and a metal spoon, were shot with BB guns and bottle rockets, choked and burned with cigarettes, as well as other unindicted allegations of abuse.

The domestic battery count Christina Snyder was convicted of accused her of punching one of the victims in the stomach.

Games-Neely said it was an extremely tough case due to the age of the victims at the time of the abuse and amount of time that had elapsed between when the abuse occurred and when the trial began years later.

"That's a long time to reach back and try to remember what you did, who was there and all those kinds of things, and that makes it far more difficult. We did not expect that we would win them all, and we did not. We have to bring forward what we believe we can prove, and we had advised the family going in that we weren't sure we could get all the convictions, because it rose and fell on what the children had to say and what they could remember," Games-Neely said.